Here’s a recap of the interview on TSN 1050 – the interesting quote was about expectation management for fans regarding the development of Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas:
On good teams, you’re not going to see a big jump from a Terrence or a Jonas. They’re not going to go from 12 points to 19 points a game. They’re not going to jump from 22 years to 26 years old. When you’re on a lottery team, or on a team that’s not so good, yes, guys get a chance to score points and do those things.
We have role players, we have our main players, so these young players are going to take their time and grow, and grow the right way. We’re going to give them the opportunity. We’ve preached that from day one and we’ll see how that goes and then make an assessment.
Here’s that summary:
- No Christmas holidays for him; this is where things get busy because you have good sample size of games and you can project how the season might go
- Asked if the success makes him more aggressive on the market, says he has to balance between being a “one season team” that ends up on the “where are they now?” list and has to keep an eye on the future
- Asked what position he would most like to strengthen says he’s happy with all the players but they’re “still trying to figure ourselves out at the three and four”
- Says fans should be aware that on good teams like the Raptors, people need to manage expectations regarding young players and people can’t expect big jumps for Valanciunas or Ross; if this were a lottery team, it’d be different because they would have more chances
- Says Mandela motivated him, grew up watching him on the news and appreciated him “trying to effect people in a good way”; makes him reflect on how he grew up and values giving other people opportunities
- Funny story about how he was an unpaid scout with the Magic, and that at the end of the night everybody went to their hotel upstairs, but he only pretended in doing so and went to the hotel
- How has he grown as a GM? Says Colangelo, Vandeweghe, Weltman, have been mentors and that he appreciates the “room to roam” he’s been given; says he’s learned never to sit back and always learn
- Shout out to fans, organization, team, and country, says he “intends to make it last a long time”
- He’s taking a bus to Detroit to watch the game
